I just got a 22 inch Viewsonic p225f, and I've noticed some strange faint *vertical* (iow, I'm not talking about the usual 2 horizontal lines that stabilize the aperture grille) lines on the right side of the screen (not very noticable). It's difficult to describe, but it looks almost like a brushed metal texture, and takes up about 1/4 of the screen. Any ideas? Earlier today, there were two darker vertical lines (similar to the horizontal ones), but they have now gone away. Perhaps these new ones will go away too, but it's kinda scaring me. I moved my system away from the monitor, in case the lines were being caused my interference, but it hasn't helped so far. Anyways, any help/advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

P.S. Does the IGP of nForce2-based mobos take up some memory bandwidth? I have been getting unusually low scores in memory benchmarks, even with my bios memory timings set to "aggressive", but I am also using the IGP (for now).

elvis

03-02-2003, 12:44 PM

1) check the cable between your monitor and system, as well as the position of the system. any nearby power cables, or even the monitor itself if it is not correctyl shielded can cause image artifacts. try moving the monitor or your computer tower itself and see if that helps. arrange your cables neatly, and ensure that power cables are always as far away from data cables as you can have them.

it sounds like you have already tried this sort of thing, in which case my only other advice is to test the monitor on a completely different system in a completely different room (and on a different power line in the building, if possible). if the problems dissapear, then try some power filters perhaps, or a new card in your system.

2) onboard video sucks. it always has, and it always will. remember that the normal geforce4mx cards have ram in the 300-400MHz plus range. this is typically very high-quality memory with a far superior (and much more optimised) bus to a normal motherboard bus. plus this memory is only for video data, which means nothing else interferes and the bandwidth in relative terms becomes far greater.

ram on a motherboard is typically 266 or 333, and has a MUCH slower bus. the end result is a good video chipset which is being starved for data by (a) a slower bus and (b) needing to share that bus with other components (even itself in the case of AGP texturing, which is kind of silly).

generally speaking, any software tweaks you make to the memory settings of your onboard card are actually ignored by the system. (try overclocking the "video ram" and see what i mean).

onboard video really was designed for the average "word and excel" business desktop. if you are doing any sort of serious gaming or 3d work on your system, i strongly recommend getting a serious video card to match.

Hookflash

03-02-2003, 07:44 PM

Elvis: Thanks for the help. I just discovered another weird thing yesterday: When I hit the side of my monitor lightly with my hand, the faint vertical lines go away. Then, ever so slowly (over a period of many hours), they return. Does this sound like any problem you've heard of (such as the shielding issues you mentioned)? Also, do you think it would help if I plugged my monitor directly into the wall outlet as opposed to plugging it into my power-strip/ups? I have tried different outlets, but it's difficult to tell whether or not they help since the lines take so long to reappear (and, occassionally, they don't appear at all).

elvis

03-02-2003, 10:26 PM

the whack it and fix it syndrome you tallk about sounds very much like there are soe physical problems with the monitor (possibly the tube is out of alignment).

still, it could be a variety of things, and you are knocking the tube out of alingment which makes it appear to be fixed. i wouldn't recommend bashing it about too much, as one foul beating could render the thing warranty void.

like i said, try getting it hooked up to another machine somewhere else (got a friendly neighbour with a PC?). if it still gives the same problems after that, get it replaced under warranty.

Hookflash

03-04-2003, 04:37 AM

Well, ViewSonic support replied with "Try tapping the side of the monitor. This should fix the problem". Obviously, I sent the support request before I had tried this;). Still, it seems like an odd solution...

elvis

03-04-2003, 04:44 AM

seems like a very unprofessional solution. giving anything a solid kicking is not what i call a technical solution. :)

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